


Moonlight on the Sea

by kagseyamas



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/F, Mermaid and pirate au, Minor Injuries, choni, mermaid!Cheryl, pirate!Toni
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-14
Updated: 2018-05-22
Packaged: 2019-04-22 21:33:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14317602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kagseyamas/pseuds/kagseyamas
Summary: Toni scrambled to her feet. She was looking at a mermaid. One of the most vicious, heartless, dangerous creatures of the sea, had saved her life.An AU in which Toni is a pirate, Cheryl is a mermaid, and everyone looks out for themselves.





	1. Chapter 1

Toni’s crew had been pillaging a village the last time she’d seen them. They had docked there earlier that day, and the native villagers had shown them kindness, mistaking the Serpents for merchants, perhaps traders for the King. They had fed them, patched them up, believed their faux-accents of good English and good etiquette. Then, deep into the night, when the village was at rest, the Serpents had robbed it of all it owned, and then burned it to the ground.

Toni hadn’t been able to stand it, not when an old woman that had reminded her of her grandmother had invited her in for lunch, told her stories of the mermaids that roamed the coast, native to the land, and given her a necklace she’d made herself out of seashells, for no reason other than to be kind. She was probably dead now, and if not dead, broke.

Toni wasn’t a fool; she’d been with the Serpents for a number of years, and she knew what being a part of the crew entailed. She was a pirate. Pillaging came with the job. But she wasn’t heartless either, and someone could have warned her first, before she’d gone and formed any friendships.

She was on the secluded beach, just below a cliff. The ship was near, and she was planning to slip on and avoid the chaos. Had her crew been in danger, perhaps she would have stayed to fight, but in reality, she knew that there was no fighting going on—these people had probably never raised a fist in their lives. They stood no chance against the Serpents, and Toni didn’t think she had the stomach to watch a massacre tonight.

Just above, the trees on the cliff had caught fire, spread from the flammable wooden houses nearby, and Toni could hear shouts and screams in the distance. She approached the water, about to wade in, when another, closer shout nearby, caught her attention.

She had just looked up to see where it had come from, when a hand wrapped itself around Toni's ankle, and yanked her to the ground. For a split second, a supernova of panic burst through her, but once she hit the ground and was dragged into the water, the hand let go. Just a split second later, a piece of burning timber fell from the tree on the cliff above her, and landed just where she had previously been standing. Toni stared at it, her heart thumping wildly if her chest, ears, and mouth. Then she turned to the owner of the hand.

Her eyes landed on a girl, sitting in the shallow water, and staring at her with wide, awe-stricken eyes. Her hair was a vibrant red, soaked and plastered to her body, long enough to conceal her seemingly-bare chest. Her skin was like moonlight, almost translucent, and her arms and shoulders were smattered with metallic red scales that glimmered and shone in the light of Toni's torch. Below the water beneath her lay a long, red tail of scales the same colour. Toni scrambled to her feet. She was looking at a mermaid.

One of the most vicious, heartless, dangerous creatures of the sea, had saved her life. She considered fleeing for her life, or notifying the rest of the Serpents so that they could capture the creature. Then, she noticed the spear emerging from the girl's tail.

She stared at Toni with large, brown eyes, her chest tight and full of the breath she was holding there, waiting to see what Toni's next move would be. Her shoulders were shaking, and there was a dark liquid seeping from the wound, crawling up towards the surface of the water in thick, black tendrils. She looked in pain. Toni couldn't let her remain that way, no matter how it put her life in danger. She reached forward and yanked the spear from the scales, ripping the sleeve of her shirt off and tying it tightly just above the wound to prevent the blood from spilling out. The mermaid winced and yelped, but ultimately seemed relieved to have it gone from her body.

The mermaid reached forward, and Toni's whole body stilled, bracing herself for the scratch of a claw on her face, or a steely-grip around her neck, but instead, the she touched a hand to Toni's cheek, cold and damp and delicate. The mermaid looked as unsure of herself as Toni was feeling.

“...Thank you,” the girl said. Her voice was throaty and hoarse, as though it had gone years unused, but Toni was more preoccupied by the fact that the mermaid was speaking to her. In a language she understood.

She was about to ask how it was possible when a shout came from the cliff above, along with the glow of several torches, and the mermaid snatched her hand away, like a horse that had been spooked. She made to dash back into the water, but she wasn't quick enough, as a net was flung over her writhing body. She let out a piercing, non-human shriek, her limbs getting tangled in the net as she thrashed, but Toni knew that even she could not be immune to it.

“We got it!” Tall boy crowed from above the bay, and the rest of the Serpents cheered in celebration.

“Topaz, keep it secure 'til we get down there,” FP called, as they made their way down to the bay the long way around.

The mermaid shook her head frantically, looking at Toni with pleading eyes. Toni couldn't bare it, shutting her eyes and turning away. She didn't want to be the reason for her suffering, especially when she seemed so... _human_. Toni had heard stories of beast-like fish-women from the depths, with fangs for teeth, and black, vacant eyes, and hair made out of eels that spat venom. But this one looked simply like a scared young girl, whimpering and hyperventilating and shrieking as her hair knotted itself into the rope. But Toni couldn't let down her crew. If she helped the mermaid escape, she would be exiled from the Serpents. And as a girl of her background and skin colour, she would have no one else to turn to. The rest of the crew came down to join her, and it took five men to pick the mermaid up in her net, many of them buckling under the sheer weight of her tail. It was pure muscle, swinging furiously and trying to take as many of them down as possible. She seemed to realize that it wouldn't help her case, but she persisted anyway, until Tall Boy snapped and pulled a pistol on her. She must have known what it was, because she calmed instantly, although her hands were still trembling. Toni, despite her guilt, stood back and prevented herself from interjecting.

 

 

* * *

 

 

“You got close enough to touch it? Without backup? How are you still _alive_ right now?”

Toni frowned pensively at Fangs, who was looking as though she had told him she’d bent a steel bar with her bare hands. “She wasn't...I don't know. She didn't seem that dangerous. I don't think she _wanted_ to hurt me.”

“Bullshit,” said Sweet Pea, tossing her a sideways glance as he tied his boot, propping it up on one of the wooden crates that were usually stacked up in the cargo hold, but had been dragged into the berth so that they didn't have to didn't have to all lie in their hammocks as they sat around and discussed the successes of the evening. Toni was the hero of the night, having stalled the mermaid and preventing it from escaping, as well as bandaging its wound so that it could be captured alive. “They're monsters. You got lucky.”

“Luck had nothing to do with it,” Fangs grinned, thumping her on the shoulder with a closed fist. “We saw the spear, Topaz.”

Toni wanted to interject that she had had nothing to do with the spear, that she had a feeling it had come from Penny instead, but there was an embarrassment in the fact that she had barely done anything to help at all, and Penny seemed unbothered with the fact that the credit had been thrust onto Toni. Perhaps she was more preoccupied with blackmail and general murder-stuff, rather than petty mermaid drama.

Toni drained the rest of her wine and stood, leaving her cup on her crate.

“Where are you going?” Joaquin asked, looking up from the small figurine of a mermaid he was carving from a piece of tree branch.

“I'll be right back,” she said, not quite answering the question.

 

 

* * *

 

 

The tank was stored in the hold among the water casks, and Toni coughed as she inhaled the dust and mould that flew from the crates of supplies and less-valuable loot as she brushed by. She made her way to the back of the hull, the sloshing of water still audible through the creaking and groaning of the ship.

There stood a large glass tank, filled to the brim with fresh seawater, was the mermaid. Why they had left her in the dark with nothing or no one to occupy her was beyond Toni. She was curled into a little ball at the bottom of the tank, and she seemed to be weeping, her face buried into her arms and her tail coiled around her like that of a cobra.

“Hey,” Toni said quietly.

The mermaid looked up, saw it was her, and stuck her face right back into her arms.

“I need to take a look at your wound, okay?” Toni said. “I'm probably the only one capable of patching someone up on this ship, and it's best if it doesn't get infected.”

She wasn't sure if the mermaid could understand her, or even hear her through the glass and the water. The tank was open at the top, but there was a heavy metal grid over it to prevent her from simply climbing out.

The mermaid looked up at her, before her face crumpled, and she banged the glass once with an open palm in an angry outburst. Toni sighed, and sat down with crossed legs in front of the tank. She needed to keep quiet. If anyone caught her down here she could get in serious trouble.

“I'll sit with you,” Toni simply said, pausing before continuing. “I'm sorry you've been treated like this. I don't have much power in this crew, but...I wish things were different for you.”

The mermaid looked surprised, and for a moment her face was open honesty, intrigue, and sorrow all in one. Toni got the feeling she could understand her just fine. Then, she seemed to change her mind, and she darted back into the corner of the small tank, in which she couldn't even fully stretch out her body, and hid her face again.

Toni waited patiently for her to come around, speaking all the while. “So what should I call you? Do mermaids even have names? Mine is Toni, but a lot of the crew just call me Topaz, so if you hear that around you'll know they're talking about me.”

The mermaid refused to lift her head and reply, so Toni prompted her.

“I mean, it's fine if you don't want to give me your name. I'll just make up my own for you.” She pretended to think for a moment. “Hm...I feel like you look like a Scallop. Or a Sea-lion-breath Yeah, I'll call you Sea-lion-breath.”

The mermaid darted to the class again, looking outraged and shaking her head, and Toni laughed. She looked as though she was trying to say something, but when Toni gestured that she couldn't hear her, she sighed and gave up. Then, reluctantly, she began tapping on the glass in slow, rhythmic patterns. It was Morse Code, she realized.

 _Oh_ , Toni thought. _She's not just intelligent. She's_ magnificent.

She deciphered the taps in her head, and the mermaid seemed delighted that she could communicate with her.

_...C...H...E...R...Y...L..._

Toni waited for more letters, but then she stopped tapping on the glass, looking at Toni expectantly.

“Your name is Cheryl?” she asked, and Cheryl nodded excitedly.

Her excitement was short-lived, however, and her eyes saddened as she sank to the bottom of the tank.

“Listen,” Toni said. “I can't take you out, but if I hand you in these supplies, I could show you how to dress your wound.”

Cheryl stared her down, and then shook her head.

“Do you _want_ an infection?” Toni deadpanned.

Cheryl paused, and then shook her head again.

“Okay,” Toni said. “Let me see it.”

She hesitated, before untying the shirt sleeve and letting it suspend in the water beside her. It was a pretty nasty wound, but it was already looking better than a few hours prior, as the muscle was no longer torn, and the cut had already scabbed. _She must have enhanced healing powers_ , Toni realized. _Incredible_.

“Alright,” Toni said, removing the grate ever so slightly, and dropping some supplies into the water, “apply that salve, and then wrap it tightly with those bandages. You’ll need to tie them tightly so that they don’t float off in the water. Do you want me to show you how?”

Cheryl shook her head, beginning to smooth the yellow salve over her scales. Toni’s grandmother had been an apothecary, before she’d died, and Toni had learned most of the trade from her. She was by far the most qualified medic on the ship, but few recognized this as she was a woman, and women were rarely medics. Yet, despite the crew’s lack of respect for her, it didn’t stop them from coming to her when the needed bones set.

She turned to leave, when Cheryl rapped sharply on the glass. When Toni looked over her shoulder, Cheryl was holding Toni’s old shirt sleeve. She’d forgotten it, she realized. Perhaps the others wouldn’t notice she’d been down here if they didn’t notice that Chery’s bandage had been changed, however they would notice if there was a rogue shirt sleeve floating about the tank. Toni pulled up a crate beside the tank, sliding back the grate again, about halfway over the tank. Her better judgement was still insisting that if was dangerous, to get so close to a vicious creature of the sea, to give her ample opportunity to drag Toni into the water and drown her before devouring her flesh. And yet, Toni trusted her. Those large, brown eyes betrayed fear, rather than fury.

Cheryl’s head popped out of the water, level with Toni’s. Toni gestured to take the shirt, but Cheryl snatched it back, pouting.

“It stings me,” she said. There were droplets clumping her eyelashes together, making them appear long and black, however she had virtually no eyebrows.

“It’s supposed to sting,” Toni said, rolling her eyes, “that’s how you know it’s working.”

“How do I know you are not trying to poison me?”

“Shouldn’t you have asked me that before you put it on?” Toni said, making a lurch for the shirt sleeve, and actually managing to take it from her, this time.

Cheryl narrowed her eyes. Toni almost expected her to continue the conversation, expected her to be desperate for some form of companionship, but she simply sank down to the bottom of the tank, still trying to sulk her situation away. Perhaps the type of companion she required was not one that had stood by idly while her crew had captured her and stuffed her in a glass box. And that was fair, she supposed. 

 


	2. Chapter 2

Toni had been visiting Cheryl for the past few nights. It was risky to sneak in to see her during the day, but at night, when her crew had succumbed to a drunken slumber, she was free to do as she pleased. The mermaid’s wound had healed quickly, giving Toni no real reason to see her anymore, so she had resorted to finding other excuses for seeking her out. Tonight, it was that she wanted information on Andrikos, a foreign land they would dock on in a weeks time.

“You must know _something_ about it,” Toni goaded, when Cheryl insisted she knew nothing. “I thought you were familiar with the seas.”

“I am,” Cheryl said simply. “My kind are excellent navigators. We were stargazing and creating maps when your kind still believed the earth was flat.”

She tucked a wet strand of ginger hair behind her ear, her arms draping over the top of the tank, where her face was level to Toni’s.

Toni sighed. “I’m worried. FP is keeping what business we have there very quiet. I was hoping you would know what kind of ships come and go from Andrikos.”

“Why?” Cheryl queried, cocking her head. She had become more accustomed to Toni’s company over the last few days, but she hadn’t exactly been the most willing participant in conversation. It always took at least some prompting to get a single word out of her.

Toni sucked in a breath and averted her eyes. “Because I don’t know what’s going to happen to you when we dock. And I would be very worried if they have many fishing boats or trading ships.”

Cheryl closed her eyes. At first, her lips trembled, but she pursed them so that it was only her chin that wobbled.

“You’re naive, if you don’t know what will happen to me at Andrikos.”

Toni’s eyes widened. “Do you?”

“My guess is,” she said, looking as though she was trying to remain casual about it, “they will use the scales from my tail for medicinal purposes, as well as the dust of my ground bones. My hair will be used for wigs, my teeth for dentures, or perhaps jewelry. And from the horror stories I have heard as a child, the rest of me will be sold at the market and eaten. Your Captain will most likely sell me to the first wealthy trader at Andrikos.”

Toni stared at her in horror. “You’re joking.”

Cheryl shot her a sorrowful smile. “Had I known I would die this soon, I would have made more jokes in my lifetime. But alas, that was not one of them.”

Toni swallowed the lump in your throat. “Why do you seem so calm? How can you just sit there and accept your fate?”

Cheryl leaned back and flapped the fin of her tail, spraying Toni with a mist of seawater.

“What do you suggest I do? Climb out and walk away? I accepted my fate when you captured me.”

Toni frowned at her, her heart thudding to the bottom of her stomach. “ _I_ didn’t capture you. My crew did.”

Cheryl narrowed her eyes. “But you have not set me free. Does that make you any better than your crew?”

Toni frowned, biting her lip. She knew, deep down, that Cheryl was right. She _wasn’t_ any better. She had to do _something_ to help. But...that would mean betraying the Serpents. Besides—what if that _wasn’t_ what FP had in store for Cheryl? What if he had something entirely more humane planned for her? She couldn’t go making any hasty decisions just yet.

“Look, just—don’t worry. I won’t let any of that stuff happen to you. I’m going to find out what’s going to happen when we get there.”

Cheryl looked thoroughly unconvinced, but she nodded anyway.

As Toni turned to climb the steps to the deck, she heard voices above, and then the door was opening. Toni saw Cheryl’s eyes widen as she ducked behind two water casks to hide, but moments later the mermaid was curled at the bottom of her tank, pretending to be asleep. At the very last second Toni realized she had forgotten to push the grate back over the top of the tank, but it was already too late.

“It’s asleep,” she heard Tall boy say.

From the sliver of space between the two barrels Toni could just about see his legs move by, but she didn’t peak her head out, for fear of being caught. If anyone knew she’d been sneaking down here at night, who knew what kind of trouble it would land her in. She couldn’t afford to be abandoned by her crew. It would be a worse fate than walking the plank.

“Good. We don’t know if it can understand us,” came a woman’s voice. _Penny_.

But what were they doing down here so late? Of all of the Serpents, Tall boy and Penny were the two most likely to disregard FP’s orders, so that part didn’t surprise her, but what would they want with the mermaid?

“Who cares if it does?” Tall boy said. "We're getting rid of it tomorrow night anyway."

From corner of her eye, Toni saw Cheryl's tail twitch, and felt her own shoulders tense. _Tomorrow?_ But they wouldn't dock at Andrikos for a _week_.

"Keep it down," Penny ordered, her voice low. "That's _if_ the Ghoulies want to go ahead with the deal."

"When are you receiving correspondence?"

"Tomorrow morning. There's big money in this, Tall boy. More than that milk-livered captain would ever provide us with."

She tutted, then, and strolled over to the tank. She rapped on the glass, before kneeling up on one of the crates to drag the grate over and secure it over the tank. "Can't have our prize fishy trying to escape, now can we?”

Toni heard her knees crack as she knelt down to peer at Cheryl’s face in the tank.

“I know you’re awake in there,” Penny sang under her breath, before standing. “Let’s go. Walls have ears.”

“What do the Ghoulies want with it anyway?” Tall boy asked, as they climbed the stairs.

“They could use it as a paperweight, for all I care,” Penny said. “As long as I get paid.”

Toni held her breath until she was sure they were gone, and even then, she waited a few more minutes. Eventually, she creeped over to the tank, pressing her hand against the glass. The gills on Cheryl’s neck were opening and closing at an alarming rate, as though she too had been holding her breath.

“I’m not going to let them take you,” Toni assured her, still not quite convinced herself. “Especially not to the Ghoulies.”

‘ _What do you propose?_ ’ Cheryl tapped out on the glass.

Toni bit her lip. She didn’t want to risk her position in the Serpents...but letting them sell Cheryl off like a piece of meat wouldn’t make her any better than Tall boy and Penny. It would be inhumane.

“I’m going to get you out of here.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look, I know this is short. I only updated it so that anyone who wanted more knows that I plan to continue it. Im doing really big exams in two weeks so I probs wont update until after that, but I do plan on continuing the story!


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